Joseph Emerson Worcester

Worcester's dictionaries focused on traditional pronunciation and spelling, unlike Noah Webster's attempts to Americanize words.

Worcester was born August 24, 1784, in Bedford, New Hampshire, and worked on a farm in his youth, entering Phillips Academy, Andover, in 1805.

In 1823, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences[4] He wrote a much-used textbook, Elements of History, Ancient and Modern, accompanied by an Historical Atlas, published in 1827.

[5] Worcester published his Comprehensive Pronouncing and Explanatory English Dictionary in 1830, inciting charges of plagiarism from Webster.

Having heard about the plans for Worcester's new edition, Webster's publishers, George and Charles Merriam, rushed to put out a similar work.

[12] More competition arrived in the form of the Merriam's revised edition of Webster's American Dictionary, which appeared in 1864.

McKean, daughter of the founder of Harvard College's Porcellian Club, had previously served as a teacher after taking over the post of Sophia Ripley.

When Mrs. Craigie died, Worcester rented out the entire house from her heirs and subleased rooms to the poet and professor Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

[11] Unlike Webster, Worcester adhered to British pronunciation and spellings, calling them "better", "more accurate", "more harmonious and agreeable".

[citation needed] The 20th century lexicographer and scholar James Sledd noted that the commercial rivalry between the two attracted significant public interest in lexicography and dictionaries.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. wrote that the book was one "on which, as is well known, the literary men of this metropolis are by special statute allowed to be sworn in place of the Bible.